Dragon Ball Home Releases: Funimation vs Madman

[Deli295]

From the DVD covers I've seen, all the DVDs from the World Tournament Saga onwards have bilingual releases. Everything prior to it (The Saiyan Conflict-Great Saiyaman) is English dubbed only.

[Deli295]

I've noticed that the Funimation Fullscreen releases of the movies have two English tracks: one in 5.1 and the other in stereo, can anybody explain why did they do that?

[KBABZ]

I've noticed that the Funimation Fullscreen releases of the movies have two English tracks: one in 5.1 and the other in stereo, can anybody explain why did they do that?

That's likely due to the different scores. The 5.1 release will have the original Japanese score with Funimation's dub dialogue, and has Voices and SFX on the center channel, while the corner channels have SFX, echoes and the music. The 2.1 audio will be their original broadcast dub/score combo. The GT Green Bricks had a similar setup: 5.1 Dub w. Japanese music, 2.0 Dub w. Menza music, and 1.0 Japanese dub & music,

[Deli295]

I've noticed that the Funimation Fullscreen releases of the movies have two English tracks: one in 5.1 and the other in stereo, can anybody explain why did they do that?

That's likely due to the different scores. The 5.1 release will have the original Japanese score with Funimation's dub dialogue, and has Voices and SFX on the center channel, while the corner channels have SFX, echoes and the music. The 2.1 audio will be their original broadcast dub/score combo. The GT Green Bricks had a similar setup: 5.1 Dub w. Japanese music, 2.0 Dub w. Menza music, and 1.0 Japanese dub & music,

Not really, the three tracks you mentioned first appeared on the Orange Bricks and beyond, but I'm talking about the previous DVDs, they have two tracks, a Surround and a Stereo one, both in English, both with the same score, the only thing I noticed is that the English Stereo is louder.

[KBABZ]

Not really, the three tracks you mentioned first appeared on the Orange Bricks and beyond, but I'm talking about the previous DVDs, they have two tracks, a Surround and a Stereo one, both in English, both with the same score, the only thing I noticed is that the English Stereo is louder.

Hmm, well, if I were to hazard a guess, it might have been when they were still figuring out this surround sound thing with the mixing, and provided both just in case people didn't like their 5.1 hodge-podge of old audio. Or, they're just providing options, like how we used to get Fullscreen and Widescreen editions of movies on DVD.

[LostTimeLord]

I don't think the full-screen (pre-bricks) discs had the 'dub with JP score option', and this wasn't exclusive to Funi or Dragon Ball. As I understand it, stereo options are usually included because, through a stereo system, they sound better than the 5.1 track does. Having a sound mixer go through and deliberately re-mix the sounds in stereo (or at least double-checking that everything in the end result sounds as it should) will result in a better mix than the algorithms in the DVD player can achieve automatically. Sony's Spider-Man 3 DVD even had instructions helping the viewer work out which format they should use. Most studios (Funi included) appear to have given up on this a long time ago, and realistically I doubt that many realized why stereo was an option in the first place.

[Deli295]

Well it sounds great for editing the disc and replace the stereo track with the Ocean dub for the first three movies.

[LordCrumb]

From the DVD covers I've seen, all the DVDs from the World Tournament Saga onwards have bilingual releases. Everything prior to it (The Saiyan Conflict-Great Saiyaman) is English dubbed only.

Yep, just checked the discs and the Jap audio is included from the first World Tournament DVD, so Madman only got 26 DVDs with both languages, as opposed to the 69 Funimation/US got.

[Robo4900]

I've noticed that the Funimation Fullscreen releases of the movies have two English tracks: one in 5.1 and the other in stereo, can anybody explain why did they do that?

They're the same, basically; just two different mixes of the same thing.
I think perhaps there were technical issues with 5.1 audio mixing down to stereo systems, and the other way around, so they did two mixes to ensure compatibility. They did the same thing on the Ultimate Uncut DVDs too.

Well it sounds great for editing the disc and replace the stereo track with the Ocean dub for the first three movies.

Yes, definitely.